NBA, PGA Tour, and NCAA Want Prediction Markets to Require Users Be 21 — Here’s Why It Matters

The NBA, PGA Tour, and NCAA have each filed formal comment letters with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission urging the agency to require that users be at least 21 years old to trade on sports event contracts — a threshold that mirrors the minimum age enforced by regulated sportsbooks in most states but currently does not apply to prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

The Letters and What They Say

Thursday marked the deadline for public comment on the CFTC’s proposed rulemaking framework for prediction markets, and the agency received 1,541 total submissions. The NBA, led by Executive Vice President and Assistant General Counsel Dan Spillane, was among the most prominent voices. The league argued that prediction market trading “carries material risks, including financial loss” that may be particularly acute for younger individuals, and called on the CFTC to categorically prohibit sports prediction contract trading by anyone under 21. Short of an outright ban, the NBA asked regulators to at minimum restrict platforms from directly marketing sports products to users in the 18-to-20 age range.

The PGA Tour, through SVP of Tournament Administration Andy Levinson, made a similar request, asking the CFTC to establish a framework that increases the age requirement for sports event contract participation to 21. The NCAA, represented by president Charlie Baker, expressed the strongest language of the three. Baker warned that the current 18-year minimum “presents a significant risk of inducing college students — and potentially even high school students — to engage in these markets in a manner detrimental to their well-being and harmful to this country’s collegiate sports endeavors as a whole.” The NCAA also cited what it called the “potentially addictive and harmful nature” of sports wagering and urged regulators to specifically require a 21-plus minimum for college sports prediction markets.

Why the Age Gap Matters

The core issue is regulatory inconsistency. Regulated online sportsbooks such as FanDuel and DraftKings operate under state laws, and in most states those laws require users to be at least 21. Prediction market platforms, however, are not classified as gambling operators under federal law. They are regulated by the CFTC as commodity exchanges, which means the gambling-specific age restrictions that apply to traditional sportsbooks simply do not apply to them. Kalshi and Polymarket currently allow users as young as 18 to trade.

This gap matters in practice because sports event contracts have grown rapidly in availability and popularity since early 2025, and the product — betting on whether a team wins, whether a player scores, or whether a particular in-game event occurs — is functionally indistinguishable from sports wagering to most users. The leagues arguing for the age increase are not claiming prediction markets are illegal gambling; they are arguing that the behavioral risks are the same, and the regulatory protections should match. Those interested in state-by-state sports betting rules will recognize this disparity immediately.

Additional Demands from the Leagues

The age minimum was not the only item on the leagues’ wish lists. The NBA also asked the CFTC to ban athletes, officials, and other league personnel from trading on any contracts related to their league, and to give the NBA the right to review contracts that resemble prop or parlay-style bets before they go live. The PGA Tour called for “robust” integrity monitoring, know-your-customer standards, restrictions on what it called “potentially harmful markets,” and anti-harassment measures to protect athletes from prediction market-motivated abuse.

Players unions for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS also submitted a joint letter. Those unions similarly endorsed the 21-plus age requirement and additionally called for bans on contract types they view as most prone to manipulation, including contracts tied to individual player penalties, injuries, or biometric data. The NFL and NHL, notably, did not submit comment letters, though an NFL spokesperson confirmed the league has been “engaged with the CFTC all year.”

What Comes Next

The CFTC is required to consider all 1,541 comments before issuing formal rule proposals. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig told Front Office Sports last month that the agency would move “agressively” on proposed rules, after which an additional public comment period of 30 to 90 days will follow before final regulations are adopted. Whether the commission ultimately adopts a 21-plus age floor remains to be seen, but the coordinated voice of multiple major sports organizations signals that the pressure on federal regulators to close the gap between sportsbook rules and prediction market rules is only growing. For bettors already familiar with platforms that are available through DraftKings and similar operators, the contrast in regulatory treatment is hard to ignore.